Just a Bite – Details, episodes & analysis

This Hunger Action Day, Director of Nutrition Policy and Programs at the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, Hope Lane-Gavin, sits down with Executive Director, Joree Novotny, to discuss the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (also referred to as HR 1 or Budget Reconciliation), and the expected impacts it will have on people facing hunger in the State of Ohio. HR1 was signed into law on July 4th, 2025, and includes many provisions that will impact those who rely on our network, and those who rely on public benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. In a time when the cost of living continues to rise, and more people are turning to public assistance to make ends meet, HR1 introduces a dangerous new territory for public benefits across the country. Listen to hear more about how the ‘cost-savings’ approved in HR1 are expected to impact the real lives of Ohioans facing hunger.  

References:  

More than 130,000 Ohio households to see an $1,150 annual reduction in SNAP benefits, and rural counties are hit the hardest.   

SNAP, Medicaid, and Medicare in the federal reconciliation bill 

Food, housing, and healthcare costs are sources of major stress for many people - AP-NORC  

Why do grocery prices continue to rise? 

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Ohio Association of Foodbanks is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization without party affiliation or bias. We are Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger, and our mission is to assist Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks in providing food and other resources to people in need and to pursue areas of common interest for the benefit of people in need.   

Welcome back to Just a Bite! After a few months away, we are diving back in with a discussion with Ohio Association of Foodbanks Executive Director, Joree Novotny, to discuss the 2026-2027 Ohio State Biennium Operating Budget, and its impacts on our hunger relief network, and food insecure Ohioans. We are grateful to Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Gov. Tressel and the Ohio General Assembly for their continued commitment to Ohio’s hunger relief network in the biennial state budget.  

In the 2026-2027 biennial budget, our food bank network received a total of $24.55 million, which is $7.3 million less than the previous budget, returning the states biennial budget back pre-Covid funding levels. Although funding levels for hunger relief in the state of Ohio have returned to pre-covid levels, our network continues to see record breaking visits to our food banks each quarter. With fewer resources to feed our neighbors, and inflation continuing to rise, our capacity is stretching even thinner. Tune in to hear how this state budget is expected to impact on our network, our food programs, and our neighbors.  

References:  

Ohio Association of Foodbanks Statement on the Passage of Sub H.B. 96 - July 1, 2025 

Ohio Association of Foodbanks - 2024 Annual Report – see page 7 for a breakdown of food sources, as distributed.  

• As of July 1, 2025, the Ohio Association of Foodbanks no longer retains dollars and food from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) or the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA).  

Learn more about the Ohio Food Program and Agricultural Clerance Program! 

Food Inflation in the United States - U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics 

For more information on the demand facing Ohio’s foodbanks, visit The Ohio Capital Journal  

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!       

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, and take our latest hunger-fighting actions!      

Ohio Association of Foodbanks is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization without party affiliation or bias. We are Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger and our mission is to assist Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks in providing food and other resources to people in ne...

Just a Bite hosts, Hope Lane-Gavin and Chloe Meyers, interview our great partners through the Ohio CAN program. Our hosts and our friends from the Regenerative Farmer Collective talked about the dichotomy of farming: how painful yet healing it can be as Black farmers to continue to work among the earth and grow as their ancestors did. 

References: 

Learn more from our guests and support their farms: 

• Tia Stuart of Narrow Way Farm 
• Sharifa Tomlinson of Arrowrock Farm an Urban Sanctuary 

• Watch Sharifa share how Ohio CAN was beneficial for her and her farm 

• Christine Irby of Irby’s Old School Farm 

• Watch their youtube channel! 

• Khalid Karriem of Farm Right Natural Fruits and Vegetables (Trotwood, Ohio) 

Learn more about Ohio CAN and other farmers Ohio foodbanks partner with in our previous episode “Getting to know some Ohio Farmers through LFPA”.  

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.      

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!       

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, and take our latest hunger-fighting actions!      

Ohio Association of Foodbanks is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization without party affiliation or bias. We are Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger and our mission is to assist Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks in providing food and other resources to people in need and to pursue areas of common interest for the benefit of people in need.   

Food assistance programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) play a pivotal role as the primary line of defense against food insecurity for numerous individuals. However, gaining access to SNAP benefits and related programs poses challenges not only for everyday Americans and Ohioans but also for those currently incarcerated. In Ohio, individuals within the correctional facilities preparing for release within 30 days can benefit from SNAP INreach, a program facilitated by Ohio's foodbank network. Holding the SNAP outreach contract for nearly 15 years, Ohio's foodbank network strives to extend support. Presently, eight out of our twelve network foodbanks are actively engaged, with four of them consistently conducting monthly corrections-in-reach. As of this recording, Ohio has 28 state-run corrections facilities, with SNAP outreach workers going into 25 of 28 facilities once per month to assist interested inmates to be released within 30 days with their SNAP applications if they so choose. Our network goal in 2024 is to have presence in all 28 state-run corrections facilities. To explore and talk about this critical work for post release success, your Just a Bite hosts have a conversation with our dedicated colleagues, Bailey Clearly-Foeller with Mid-Ohio Food Collective and Robert Zohfeld with Shared Harvest Foodbank who are doing this critical work every day. 

References: 

For more information on SNAP and the impact it has on Ohioans, check out our previous episodes titled, SNAP Outreach: Thoughts from the Field and our more recent episode titled, Ohioans on SNAP Share Their Stories. 

For those who are formerly incarcerated, Mary shared a resource that helps connect, lift up, and consult fellow system-impacted individuals, From Prison Cells to PhD.  

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.      

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!       

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, and take our latest hunger-fighting actions!      

Ohio Association of Foodbanks is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization without party affiliation or bias. We are Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger and our mission is to assist Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks in providing...

In this episode, Sarah talks with two amazing partners the Ohio Association of Foodbanks works with through the Ohio Community + Agriculture + Nutrition (CAN) Program, funded through the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program. Jamie Pritchard joins us from WIT Farm and Walt Bonham joins from the Food Lab and the Richland Gro-Op. 

Thank you, Walt and Jamie, for joining us and thank you to Carrie at OAF and Ainsley at Ohio Department of Agriculture for listening in and participating in the conversation with us!  

References: 

Check out Jamie’s family-owned business, WIT Farm at their website, on Instagram and Facebook.  

Check out Walt’s business, The Food Lab, and the Richland Gro-Op. You can find the Richland Gro-Op on Instagram and Facebook and the Food Lab on Facebook. 

Visit Walt and other farmers at the North End Community Improvement Collaborative (NECIC) farm and volunteer with them! 

For the farmers listening, here is the podcast Jamie mentioned, My Digital Farmer Podcast, by Corinna Bench from Shared Legacy Farms. You can also check out Corrin’s Farm Marketing School here. 
 

Listen to our previous episode on Ohio CAN with representatives from Ohio Department of Agriculture. 

Learn more about the Ohio CAN program here.  

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.      

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!       

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, and take our latest hunger-fighting actions!      

To explore and talk about this vast, nuanced, and interconnected problem, your Just a Bite hosts have a conversation with Professor Karen Benton at Clark State College to talk about the context and connection between access to basic needs and recidivism rates, why food and other basic needs are so critical once someone is released, and what innovative programs are available in Ohio to support system-impacted individuals as they are release. After talking with Karen, you will hear us speak with Mary Evans, Re-entry Manager at the Foodbank, Inc in Dayton and returning citizen herself to talk about her experience and to share her expertise when it comes to supporting folks post-release.   

References: 

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.      

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!       

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, and take our latest hunger-fighting actions!      

Ohio Association of Foodbanks is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization without party affiliation or bias. We are Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger and our mission is to assist Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks in providing food and other resources to people in need and to pursue areas of common interest for the benefit of people in need.   

This episode might be a tear-jerker! The association’s director emerita, Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, and executive director, Joree Novotny, join Just a Bite. The two leaders take the time to celebrate Lisa’s legacy and lifelong commitment to Ohio’s most vulnerable and reflect on Joree’s vision for the future of the association and her tenure. During this episode, they share what their successes and challenges are, how they have been feeling during the transition, and what they are looking forward to in the future.  

Thank you to the countless partners, foodbankers, and staff who have congratulated Lisa and Joree, wished them well, and recounted memories shared with them! We want to especially thank Kelly Hatas of Hocking Athens Perry Community Action/Southeast Ohio Foodbank, Kristin Warzocha of the Greater Cleveland Foodbank (GCFB), Matt Habash of Mid-Ohio Food Collective (MOFC), Michelle Riley and Lee Alder of the Foodbank, Inc, Juanita Burden of MOFC, Jess Morgan of GCFB, Tim White of MOFC, Carrie Dennis of OAF, and Jessica Renwick of OAF for sharing their well wishes and thanks with Joree, Lisa, and our listeners! 

References: 

Learn more about the leadership transition announcement here. 

Listen to our podcast episode about Lisa’s induction into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame for her tireless commitment to feeding hungry Ohioans and supporting Ohio’s largest sector, agriculture.  

Listen to Lisa reflect on the Ohio Association of Foodbanks’ 30th anniversary with Tina Osso, former executive director at Shared Harvest Foodbank who was instrumental in establishing the association.  

Watch the State of Ohio show on WOSU/PBS, with a segment featuring Lisa’s tenure at the Ohio Association of Foodbanks and John Corlett, executive director of Center for Community Solutions who is also retiring this year. Segment begins at 5:28. 

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.      

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!       

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, and take our latest hunger-fighting actions!      

Ohio Association of Foodbanks is a regi...

The public policy team at the Ohio Association of Foodbanks sits down to provide you with updates on what is happening in Congress when it comes to hunger and basic needs security. OAF’s new director of communications, Audrey Vanzant, joins Hope and Sarah to host the episode and ask the team what the listeners need to know when it comes to the debt ceiling deal negotiation earlier this year, delays in the Farm Bill, a possible government shutdown and more. Take a listen! 

References: 

Medicaid renewals are starting. Those who don’t reenroll could get kicked off, by Maria Godoy, NPR 

The government remains open – for now. Here’s what happens next, by Kaanita Iyer, CNN 

Rep Mike Johnson says avoiding shutdown is priority as House speaker, by April Rubin, Axios 

Getting a new speaker may not clear hurdles to agriculture bills, by Ellyn Ferguson, Roll Call 

Millions of American families struggle to get food on the table, report finds, by Maria Godoy, NPR 

USDA Economic Research Service Report on Household Food Security in the United States in 2022, Released October 2023. 

Feeding America Calls for Immediate Action to Address Large Increase in Food Insecurity, Released October 25, 2023 

A recently released USDA Policy Memo assured that SNAP and WIC benefits will be issued through the rest of the year, regardless of government shutdown.  

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.      

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!       

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, 

As summer comes to a close and Ohio students return to school, your Just A Bite hosts wanted to highlight a huge first step when it comes to addressing childhood hunger and providing nutritious school meals for all students. We are joined by two members of the Children’s Defense Fund Ohio, Katherine Ungar and Matthew Tippit to talk about the coalition work this campaign needed to make it a success and what opportunities there are to make sure implementation of the program is successful. We talked to Tom Zsembik, food service director at Mad River Local Schools, to share his perspective about why free school meals are needed and what he sees on the ground in his community. 

References: 

Learn more about the Hunger Free Schools Ohio campaign at their website.  

Learn more about CDF-Ohio at their website, Twitter, and Facebook.  

Listen to the past Just a Bite episode with Katherine about the Hunger Free Schools Ohio coalition.  

Read more about the work Tom Zsembik, food service director at Mid River Local Schools, is doing to break down barriers to nutritious school meals for the students in his community.  

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.           

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!            

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and take our latest hunger-fighting actions!          

Ohio Association of Foodbanks is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization without party affiliation or bias. We are Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger and our mission is to assist Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks in providing food and other resources to people in need and to pursue areas of common interest for the benefit of people in need.  

It has been a little over two months since Ohio's state budget was passed and signed by Governor DeWine! Sarah is joined by three state advocates with three different perspectives to talk about how their issues fared in the budget and what they think are the opportunities to weigh in on implementation of new programs and policies. The conversation ends with what kept each of them energized and inspired during the 6 months of monitoring the budget and advocating on behalf of the people they serve.

References: 

Learn more about Groundwork Ohio on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Look at their Early Childhood Dashboard and learn about their Center for Family Voice where you can listen to their podcast, Amplified.  

Learn more about Ohio Poverty Law Center on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.   

Learn more about Disability Rights Ohio on their website, Facebook, and Twitter. Check out their Public Policy Resource Center to get involved.  

Find your local foodbank to find help, volunteer, and donate here.           

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and subscribe to get episodes in your podcast feed as soon as we upload them every other week!            

Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and